


in case you forgot

by alyxer



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Birthday, Fluff, Holding Hands, I Will Go Down With This Ship, I'm Bad At Tagging, M/M, One Shot, Outer Space, Stars, i miss them, klance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-30
Updated: 2019-11-30
Packaged: 2021-02-25 21:14:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,488
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21612055
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alyxer/pseuds/alyxer
Summary: It's hard to keep up with earthen birthdays when you're floating around in outer space for so long, but Lance finds a way, and Keith remembers there's more to life than fighting.A pre-season 6 fic of what we missed out on.
Relationships: Keith/Lance (Voltron)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 36
Collections: Klance





	in case you forgot

Keith was sitting down on the metal floor of a random room in the castle when he heard footsteps approach from behind him. His knees were tucked up to his chest and his arms wrapped around his shins; it was the only position that didn't leave a part of his body aching more than it already did. 

The castle was quiet after a particularly grueling battle led to everyone passing out as soon as they arrived back to the ship, but like most nights, Keith's mind stayed wide awake. The sight of the brightly colored lights of distant stars and galaxies through the clear wall ahead of him used to calm his mind whenever he was stressed. The vast nothingness of it all used to silence his thoughts and remind him of the world he was chosen to save and the amount of time he spent in that cabin down on Earth, staring at cave drawings. Now it did nothing to ease his mind. Hours of gazing into outer space every night he couldn't sleep dulled the effect it once had, and his mind had been spinning the past few hours over mistakes and regrets, of angry words he said or things he could've done better.

So yeah, despite his popular lone wolf status, Keith was relieved to hear light footsteps come up behind him and break his spiraling train of thought. 

He didn't bother looking to see who it was, too tired to do anything but rest his chin on his knees and pat the spot beside him. The person in question stood for a second longer, as if hesitating, before sitting down in one fluid motion, and the smell of exotic scent filled Keith's nose. He already knew who it was. There was only one person on the ship who would spend their limited allowance on face washes and expensive lotion from the planets they visited.

"Hey, mullet." Lance spoke softly, and Keith felt the boy shift slightly beside him. "I figured you'd be here." Everything was quiet for a minute, both boys lost in thought. In his half-delirious state, it took Keith a second to digest what he said.

"How did you know I would be here?" Keith asked, suppressing a shiver from a sudden breeze in the room. Looks like the warmth he worked up from the mission was wearing off. Lance perked up.

"On most nights you come here after you train." He claimed. Keith finally looked at the tan teen - there were no sun rays in space, it was unfair - and glanced down at the big blanket in his lap. "Oh, yeah!" Lance noticed Keith's gaze and thrust the dark blue quilt towards him. "I know you also usually get cold because you think you can handle the cold temperatures at night, but then you get cold, and you're too lazy to go back to your room and get a blanket and just sit there shivering." He said it all in one breath, long-fingered hands waving animatedly in the air while he talked. 

"It's not my fault…" Keith muttered, wrapping the blanket around his body despite his protests, "Coran refuses to turn the air conditioning or heating on half the time, anyway."

"Saving energy is critical in the case of the castle needing the extra boost for an emergency wormhole or a rare garcian splater donce." Lance imitated, fingers coming up to twist a nonexistent mustache on his upper lip. Keith smiled and attempted his own imitation of the ginger altean,

"As my grandfather Hieronymus Wimbelton said when he built this castle 600 deco-phoebs ago, if you can't handle a bit o' frost biting your toes, natural selection will weed ya out along with the rest of the dooly waggers!" 

After his rant, Lance stared blankly at Keith, head tilted slightly, before bursting out into familiar laughter. It was only a few seconds before Keith began to chuckle, too, and the empty room was soon filled with the sounds of the two boys' laughter echoing throughout the room. "God, what even is a garcian splater donce?" He asked between fits of laughter, a hand clenching his side. Ow, he really was sore.

"I-i don't know, it j-just sounds like something he would say." Lance replied, gasping for air, "That was the b-best imitation I've ever heard." Keith figured it was only funny since he never did things like that before, but he smiled like a goof, anyway. As their laughter faded down into occasional chuckles, Keith fiddled with a loose string on the blanket in his lap, surprised to find how grateful he was for the blue paladin's appearance. Especially because of the blanket he brought, too.

"Hey, Lance, how the hell did you know where I went after missions and that I got cold easily?" He raised an eyebrow curiously and Lance chuckled nervously, a hand reaching up to scratch the back of his neck. His mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water. His forefinger pointed up as if he were about to say something before curling into his palm.

"It's not important." He decided, a small smile slipping onto his face. Keith rolled his eyes, deciding to drop the subject for now. 

"Okay, then. What brings you here?" He questioned, wrapping the blanket tighter around him. He was genuinely curious. He and Lance didn't dislike each other like they used to - Lance was the only one who acted like that anyway - but it was still unusual for the male to approach him so randomly. And they way he was acting...weirdly nervous and anxious, it wasn't like him.

"Uh, well, you see…" Lance faltered and squeezed his eyes shut tightly before relaxing and letting out a long, heavy sigh. "I came because of this." He pulled out something from the other side of him and held it in front of Keith, the latter having to squint as his eyes adjusted to the sudden image of the thing in his face.

"It is a...cupcake?" Keith looked up from the wrapped chocolate sweet to Lance, who resembled a deer caught in headlights.

"Yeah, yeah, just take it. I swear I didn't poison it or anything"

Keith untangled one of his hands from under the blanket and grabbed the frosted cake from Lance, ignoring how warm his fingers were as he accidentally brushed his.

Feeling the expectant stare of the boy beside him like the gaze of a hawk, Keith had no option but to take a bite, and he found himself humming appreciatively at the familiar taste. It certainly beats space goo.

"Do you like it?"

"Yeah, I do - this is really good, Lance -," he caught some falling crumbs into his hand, "but why?"

"Remember when Pidge figured out how to charge her Earth tech a few days ago?" Lance started. Keith nodded, urging the teen to continue. "Well, it showed the current date on Earth, and I remembered our talk about birthdays a while ago…" Was this going where Keith thought this was going? "And how you said you never really had a proper birthday, and I realized it was only in a couple of days. So I asked Hunk for some help on making an Earthen cupcake out of Altean ingredients, and I made you this." He gestured toward the cupcake, and even in the dim light, Keith could see the raging blush on Lance's cheeks. His heart skipped a beat, and despite the fact he thought birthdays were kinda worthless, his chest hurt with something heavy, and his stomach twisted in on itself. It was a new feeling he was learning appeared often around Lance. "Happy Birthday, Keith."

"Thank you, I really appreciate it." Keith said. It was all he could get out without bursting into tears at the thought of the kind action. He was exhausted and sick and tired of fighting, but Lance somehow managed to make him forget the current war and quiet the voices in his head that usually raged on. 

Lance nodded and stayed silent, refusing to look at Keith. Of course, the boy would make an act of kindness awkward.

"Hey, do you know the constellations of any of the stars?" Keith asked, pointing outside the wall to a random bright blue star next to a red one. Lance, grateful for the topic change, quickly jumped in.

"Oh, yeah, Coran was telling me about this one…"

The two boys spent the rest of the night competing to see who could name the most stars - which was close to none - before changing the competition to who could make up the funniest constellations and stories behind them. And if sometime during the night Lance joined Keith under the blanket, and Keith rested his head on Lance's shoulder, and their hands somehow found each other's under the covers, that was for them and the twinkling stars of the night sky to know.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys!! This was something I wrote for Keith's birthday a month ago, but I forgot to post it (oops). I can't hope to explain how much I miss these boys. Even if the last few seasons did them dirty, they'll always be the wonderful duo that made me happy when I wasn't.


End file.
